Gary Hart, interviewed in Salon, on how the Bush administration responded to the recommendations made by the Hart/Rudman commission on the threat of terrorism and other national security issues:

[A] bipartisan commission of seven Democrats and seven Republicans who had spent two and a half years studying the problem, a group of Americans with a cumulative 300 years in national security affairs, recommended to the president of the United States on a reasonably urgent basis the creation of a Cabinet-level agency to protect our country -- and the president did nothing!

So the administration was warned by Clarke, by Tenet, and by Hart, Rudman and their commission -- raising an interesting theoretical question: how many warnings of dire consquences does it take to sway someone with fixed ideas from their chosen course of action? Clearly for the Bush people, perhaps because many of them reached their conclusions through a thought process entrely infused with ideological considerations (although this probably doesn't apply to Bush himself, who seems to act out of personal motives and a sense of macho swagger: "I don't want to swat at flies!" and may be out of reach of all but the very simplest philosophies), it takes more than a few warnings, and more evidence than current intelligence and investigative techniques make possible.

Hart also speculates on why the administration hasn't done what they so clearly long to do, fire George Tenet:

You know why I think George Tenet is still in his job? I think there are smoking guns all over the White House. I think if you crack the White House safe, you're going to find memos from Tenet saying, "The terrorists are coming, the terrorists are coming." [...] I think since 9/11 they've been walking a very fine line, between wanting to put the blame on the CIA and knowing if they did so unjustifiably, they're going to get whacked. And I think that's exactly what this little dance is about, and I think that's why they did not fire Tenet. They want him and those who work for him not to retaliate.

This also explains why Tenet hasn't felt it necessary to join in the administration's fun and games in attempting to smear Clarke's reputation. He doesn't have to because the administration can't force him to because he's holding something over them. (Fred Kaplan reported in Slate that Tenet and Colin Powell were the only holdouts in not going after Clarke, but he seems to have overlooked Powell's appearance on CBS's Face The Nation last week, during which he basically said that Clarke was lying.)

If you read unfutz at least once a week, without fail, your teeth will be whiter and your love life more satisfying.

If you read it daily, I will come to your house, kiss you on the forehead, bathe your feet, and cook pancakes for you, with yummy syrup and everything.

(You might want to keep a watch on me, though, just to avoid the syrup ending up on your feet and the pancakes on your forehead.)

Finally, on a more mundane level, since I don't believe that anyone actually reads this stuff, I make this offer: I'll give five bucks to the first person who contacts me and asks for it -- and, believe me, right now five bucks might as well be five hundred, so this is no trivial offer.